land use planning laws. These laws promote an approach to land use planning known as smart growth. The basic idea of smart growth is to control sprawl by making better use of land that has already been developed.

An urban growth boundary was drawn around the Portland metropolitan area. It included not only the city of Portland, but also several suburbs. To control growth inside this boundary, voters created a new regional government called Metro. Its main job is to plan growth inside the growth boundary.

Mixed Use Helps Portland to Grow Up, Not Out Oregon’s land use planning laws have worked well. Today Portland is a compact city with controlled growth. Its downtown area is friendly to pedestrians and has hundreds of beautiful parks and open spaces. Portland also has a well-planned public transit system. As a result, its buses and streetcars make it easy to get around without a car.